Investigators have ruled out any connection between a soldier killed during a shootout with police Saturday and the slaughter of nine people at a Phoenix Buddhist temple.
Sevier County sheriff's detectives spoke with detectives in Arizona's Maricopa County to discuss whether the suspected armed robber shot in Piute County Saturday afternoon was the same person who lined up six monks and three disciples and shot them to death inside the Arizona temple.But detectives found few connections.
"They've ruled it out, and so have we," Sevier County Sheriff's Lt. C.N. Page said Tuesday. "They (Maricopa officials) were kind of hoping there was a connection. I think it would have saved them a lot of headaches."
But the vehicles and the weapons believed to have been used in the two incidents did not match, he said.
Investigators began to look for connections after finding a note left behind by the soldier shot in southern Utah. The note said he was tired of military life and would only return to his southern Arizona Army installation in a body bag. The note also said he would "take some people with him," Page said.
He left the note in his room Friday morning. The victims were found shot to death in the temple Saturday, and Yee was killed Saturday afternoon in Piute County. Any connection, however, is a "long shot," Page said.
Army officials identified the soldier as Pfc. Howard MaiWah Yee, 19, of Providence, R.I., a wire systems installer assigned to 69th Signal Co., 11th Signal Brigade at the Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona. Yee was on a three-day pass.
Yee was heavily armed, dressed in camouflage and draped with knives and ammunition. He was shot in the head when he fired a handgun in the direction of officers trying to arrest him.
He was shot following a chase that began when a Piute County deputy sheriff spotted a vehicle matching the description of a car used in a $130 armed robbery at the Tri-Mart convenience store and gas station in Junction, Piute County.
Sevier County Sheriff John Meacham said Yee motioned the deputy to come closer, but a weapon was visible and the deputy instead took cover and called for backup.
Yee drove away at high speed, and an ensuing chase along U.S. 89 in Clear Creek Canyon ended when his car skidded off the road and flattened two tires about two miles north of Big Rock Candy Mountain.
Meacham said Yee exited the car brandishing a revolver. At least six officers were at the scene and repeatedly ordered him to drop the gun.
Yee responded by saying, "You'll have to take me," and fired in the direction of three officers in front of him, the sheriff said.
On a rise some 60-70 yards away, Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Ken Pitts returned fire with a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with a rifled slug.
Yee, struck in the side of the head, was dead on the scene, Meacham said.
"I think he just flipped out," Page said.
After the shooting, officers recovered a .357 magnum revolver, knives, ammunition clips and reloaders and a gas mask - all thought to have been purchased privately by Yee.
However, no .22-caliber weapons like those believed to be used in the temple killings, were found.
In keeping with standard policy, Pitts has been relieved of duty with pay pending a UHP shooting review and the outcome of investigations by the sheriff's office and Sevier County attorney's office.